KUALA LUMPUR: The British government has condemned the activities of illegal salvage operators who have cannibalised two British World War 2 shipwrecks resting on the South China Sea bed.
The British High Commission, in a statement to the New Straits Times (NST), said the activities of such illegal salvors was deplorable as they desecrated the resting place of those who served on these once proud warships.
The High Commission said the British government was taking efforts to determine the best way forward in handling the issue.
It also expressed the British government's gratitude for the efforts by the Malaysian side, especially the maritime and heritage authorities, in seeking to counter the unlawful salvage activities.
The statement comes in the wake of the NST's expose on the activities of the illegal salvage operators who targetted the steel, high-grade aluminium and brass fixtures from the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and battleship HMS Prince of Wales - which sank in 1941.
It was reported that the presence of a foreign-registered grab dredger 100km off Kuantan had raised concerns in the diving community.
Professional diver Hazz Zain, who has explored both shipwrecks, said fishermen from Kuantan first spotted the grab dredger last month.
Hazz, who has been in the diving industry for more than 30 years, lodged a report with the Public Complaints Management System on May 16.
She also alerted the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur to the activities besides informing the Army Museum in Port Dickson.
The grab dredger had apparently entered the country's waters through Pasir Gudang and would lift metal pieces from the sea bed with hydraulic grabs.
Prince of Wales, the pride of the British Royal Navy, and Repulse sank on Dec 10, 1941, two days after the Japanese invasion of Malaya.
Sailing without an air escort, the ships were vulnerable to attacks from Japanese bombers and torpedo aircraft.
Some 800 sailors were killed in the attack.